Packed country concerts roil Nashville’s ravaged music industry – Tennessean

This past weekend, Chase Rice lived out the message in one of his newest songs.

“Dear corona,” the country artist sang in a video he posted in March. “You don’t know the heart of a country fan/ You don’t know that we don’t give a damn. … We’re gonna show up, hold our drinks high/ Sing songs ‘bout trucks and beer.”

On Saturday night in Petros, Tennessee, hundreds of those fans showed up to see Rice sing outside at Historic Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary. The standing-room only crowd packed in as tightly as any audience did before the pandemic — while coronavirus cases in the U.S. continue to rise — and those in the front rows, at least, did so without masks.

For Rice, 34, this appeared to be cause for celebration. He shared his view from the stage with a now-expired video on Instagram. “We back,” he captioned the clip, panning across the cheering crowd.

This week Rice is facing a swift backlash — as is fellow country singer Chris Janson, who played a similarly packed festival in Filer, Idaho, on Saturday — as his concert  quickly became national news.

It has even caused a rift in Nashville’s typically cordial music community as several prominent artists have vocally expressed their dismay.

Rice offered a response late Monday afternoon, posting a video on social media.

“I understand there’s a lot of varying opinions, a lot of different opinions on COVID-19, how it works with live music, crowds, and what that looks like,” he said. “… You guys are everything to me, and your safety’s a huge, huge priority.”

Rice’s next concert is a drive-in show in Ashland, Kentucky, on Friday.

“Sing the songs, but stay in your own space,” he said. “Stay with the people you came with. The safer we are now, the quicker we get to actual, normal live shows.”

Brian May, vice president of the Brushy Mountain Group, said “all local requirements” were followed and fewer than 1,000 guests were in attendance Saturday night. 

“We were unable to further enforce the physical distancing recommended in the signage posted across the property and are looking into future alternative scenarios that further protect the attendees, artists and their crews, and our employees,” May said. 

Janson, who wrote his own coronavirus-related song, “Put Me Back to Work,” did not respond to criticism of his appearance at the Highway 30 Music Fest on Saturday — though he’s continued to retweet users who’ve praised his music.

A statement from his label, Warner Music Nashville, said Janson was “one of two dozen performers to fulfill a contractual obligation after being told that last weekend’s event would adhere to all safety and social distancing protocols.”

‘We all … need to tour’ 

Some in country music — Kelsea Ballerini, Maren Morris, Bobby Bones and Mickey Guyton among them — quickly denounced those pushing forward with concerts that mirror pre-pandemic audience standards. 

Tennessee guidelines allow large events, venues and attractions to operate at half-capacity, but some artists argue that because a 10,000-person amphitheater can hold a show doesn’t mean it should.

In Petros, concert organizers planned to limit a 10,000-person venue capacity to 4,000 concertgoers.

Staff and vendors at Historic Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary were required to wear masks, and guests passed through temperature checks before entering. Per the venue website, Sawyer Brown headlines the next Brushy concert, slated for July 18. 

May said the venue plans to reevaluate the series “from top to bottom … from implementing further safety measures, to adding stanchions, to converting the space to drive-in style concerts, to postponing shows.” 

Before the show, Rice’s team felt confident about venue health protocol, said Bruce Kalmick, Rice’s manager and CEO of Triple 8 Management. The team plans to communicate social distance suggestions directly to fans in the future, he said. 

“We want to ensure that going forward everyone both is safe and feels safe,” Kalmick told The Tennessean. “We will ask our fans directly to space themselves out throughout the venue and to wear masks if they want to approach the stage.” 

He added, “We will also independently consult and enlist local health officials to advise on protocols in their market so all are in compliance.”  

On Sunday, Ballerini described a video from Rice’s concert as “selfish”; Guyton said “he doesn’t give a (expletive) about anyone or anything but his pocket book, and that is clear in this video.” 

Ballerini noted a “ripple effect” — potentially spreading COVID-19 in a community, further delaying a return to “normal” — that playing a mask-free show could cause. 

“We all want (and need) to tour,” she said. “We just care about our fans and their families enough to wait.” 

Among Nashville’s most vocal critics was Jody Whelan, director of operations for Oh Boy Records.

“Live Nation and AEG have been working on this for months,” he told The Tennessean. “All of the management companies, that’s all everyone’s been talking about is how to put on safe shows. Everyone wants shows to happen again, but (this is) going to set everyone back. … These events don’t happen without the management, without the agent, and it’s those folks that I think really need to think about what they’re doing. And when they’re not talking about this publicly, what message are they sending?”

Entertainers in Nashville have watched as the pandemic continued to pummel tour dates and music promotion plans. But many, such as country singer Kendell Marvel, vow to wait until concerts can be safe again.

“Look, I’m a 50-year-old independent artist that had a little momentum going,” said Marvel, a longtime Nashville musician who was due to open for Chris Stapleton this summer. “Who’s to say I will when this is over? I don’t want to have to wait even longer because some of these so-called ‘country singers’ wanna get out there and play so they can post Instagram pictures.” 

Performing without safety precautions “makes us look bad as we live down to the stereotype of dumb hillbillies that don’t care about anyone but ourselves,” said Will Hoge, a Nashville musician who released his latest album while sidelined from touring during the pandemic. Artists, promoters and venues that enable audiences to experience live music without social distancing put lives outside the concert at risk, he said. 

State officials said Monday that active cases in Tennessee approach 15,000, an increase of about 1,500 since last reported. Morgan County, where Rice performed, had 23 confirmed COVID-19 cases. 

“This isn’t just about a weekend of yee haw, beer drinking, truck bed, good times,” Hoge said. “We’re putting at risk our elderly population as each person there comes back potentially exposed to this virus. We’re making things harder for parents of school-age children — immunocompromised or other — who are about to have to decide if they can send their kids back to school or not.”